pork barrel

• porkbarrel, pork-barrel

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔːkˌbaɹəl/

pork barrel (plural pork barrels)

1. (now rare) A barrel used to store pork. [from 18th c.]
2. (chiefly US) A ready supply of income; one's livelihood. [from 19th c.]
3. (chiefly US politics, often attributively) State funds as assigned for local or regional expenditure; especially, central money used for regional projects which are eyecatching or designed to appeal to voters. [from 19th c.]
   • 2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin, published 2012, page 380:

     Peacekeeping initiatives […] can dangle pork-barrel funding as an incentive to leaders who abide by the peace, enhancing their power and electoral popularity.

   • 2019 August 25, Greg Weiner, “The Shallow Cynicism of ‘Everything Is Rigged’”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     Similarly, earmarked, pork-barrel spending […] is an invaluable tool for assembling bipartisan majorities for legislation because it helps members of Congress see the good a bill does for their constituents.

   • 2023 November 29, Philip Haigh, “Comment: Can we save HS2 to Crewe?”, in RAIL, number 997, page 3:

     With an election not much more than a year away, distributing HS2's money into roads is pork barrel politics. Or at least it would be if the money existed.

• pork-barrelling